A switching regulator may be used to generate an output voltage from an input voltage. The switching regulator includes; an inductor including a first terminal and a second terminal that passes an inductor current from the first terminal to the second terminal, a first switch that applies the input voltage to the first terminal when turned ON, a second switch that applies a ground potential to the first terminal when turned ON, a feedback circuit configured to estimate a load receiving the output voltage, detect when the inductor current reaches an upper bound or a lower bound, and adjust the lower bound based on the estimated load, and a switch driver configured to control the first switch and the second switch, such that the inductor current is between the upper bound and the lower bound in response to at least one feedback signal provided by the feedback circuit.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The switching regulator of claim 1 wherein the load estimator estimates the load based on a period in which the inductor current is equal to or greater than the lower bound.
5. The switching regulator of claim 4, wherein the load estimator further comprises a voltage-current converter that generates the load information by converting an output of the low pass filter into a current signal.
7. The switching regulator of claim 3, wherein the switch driver is further configured to turn OFF the first switch and turn ON the second switch in response to the second detection signal indicating the inductor current reaches the upper bound.
10. The switching regulator of claim 9, wherein the first current detector selectively adjusts the lower bound to zero in response to the comparison signal.
13. The switching regulator of claim 12, wherein the feedback circuit comprises a load estimator configured to estimate the load based on the inductor current, the upper bound, and the lower bound.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the adjusting of the lower bound comprises setting the lower bound to zero when the feedback voltage exceeds a predefined magnitude from the reference voltage.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
June 25, 2020
September 13, 2022
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